FORTUNATELY FOR DOCTORS AND PATIENTS, WE HAVE THE INTERNET

The human body is a miracle of creation but even some ‘miracles’ occasionally malfunction. Attacks by foreign forces such as bacteria, viruses and toxins can lay people low as can various forms of misadventure like accidents. In such cases a master mechanic, a doctor, is needed to provide his know-how and restore the victim to good health. Yet can doctors be expected carry out this momentous task on their own? In the modern world of instant connections via the World Wide Web, help is at hand thanks to medical websites, online forums and blogs.

Some may like to go back to the days before the internet, the dark ages, and leave doctors completely in charge. In fact, most doctors would probably agree but they only have themselves to blame. A patient obviously has a vested interest in trying to grasp what exactly is happening to his body, what the prognosis and the implications of the ailment are. Sticking one’s nose in the air and telling him to take such and such a pill, shooing him out the door and demanding an exorbitant fee is not going to wash. Unlike the dark ages, people in the current world are neither illiterate nor ignorant and understand what doctors say to them. Seeing oneself as second only to God in the sense that one is repairing what the Creator himself produced is hubris to say the least. Doctors need to remember they are human as well whatever they may personally believe and as such, are expected to act accordingly. Being economical with the truth, doctors leave patients no option but to turn to a resource which is only a click away. Many reputable medical schools like The Mayo Clinic and many organizations like the NHS now have excellent websites which are easy to navigate and fill in all the supporting details of the diagnosis the patient has been hit with. For example, a thyroid patient might learn that his itchy feet don’t mean he has athlete’s foot and that the itching is a symptom of his disease. A patient having a panic attack may realize that heart attacks don’t go on for hours and relax. In short, the internet seriously reduces doctors’ work load and helps patients to get a better understanding of their ailment.

It must be accepted that not all doctors are snooty and some would genuinely like to interact more with their patients, sooth them, allay their fears, clearly explain what is happening and what to expect. The reason they are unable to do so becomes obvious when you enter the ER on an average day and see the electronic sign above reception stating that the average waiting time is two hours.. This despite the fact that the 15 minutes rule is rigorously upheld, doctors in state hospitals are forever trying to catch up with impossible targets. Through put, spelt thru put, is the mantra and the average state hospital can be best compared to an assembly line. Add to this the fact that doctors, being second only to God, are expected to go a day and a half with no sleep, cat-nap when they can and forget about square meals, it is a wonder they can diagnose the common cold. This being the case, it is necessary to sympathize with the patient who goes into a state hospital coughing violently and is sent away having been given paracetamol and advised to drink honey and lemon and then discovers thanks to the internet that he has TB. The internet, in other words, can provide a valuable safety net preventing errors in diagnoses and helping out harassed doctors.

Nothing in the world is black and white; most things are shades of grey. The same is true for medical websites. So long as the sites referred to are reputable ones, medical websites provide a valuable service to both doctors and patients by providing the former with a more in depth understanding of their condition and lightening the workload of the latter. All one needs to do is to be sensible by dotting all one’s ‘i’ and crossing all one’s ‘t’.